~ Amino Acid Linked to Alzheimer's

In the current issue of the prestigious publication New
England Journal of Medicine, researchers have reported that
individuals with the highest levels of homocysteine in
their blood were nearly twice as likely to develop dementia
or Alzheimer's disease compared to those with the lowest
levels. For those of you who have been regularly reading
this weekly newsletter, you are probably familiar with some
of the toxic effects of homocysteine. For those of you who
are first time or sporadic readers, let me give you some
background information on homocysteine.

Homocysteine is an amino acid that is produced in the body
as part of normal metabolism. Approximately thirty years
ago, Dr. Kilmer McCully, a pathologist from Harvard, found
that elevated levels of homocysteine in the blood could
potentially lead to an increased risk of heart attack and
stroke. His research was initially dismissed out of hand
and his theory was abandoned.

However, in the last decade, especially in the last few years, there has been renewed
interest in this metabolic by-product. There have been
numerous studies in the medical literature that I believe
have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that elevations in
homocysteine increase your risk of not only heart attack
and stroke, but also even thrombophlebitis.

Doctors on the cutting edge are now starting to measure homocysteine as
part of regular cardiac screening. If you have never had a
homocysteine level checked, I would strongly recommend that
you have this done. If your doctor needs any proof
regarding the merits of this test, just have him do a
literature search on Medline and he will find literally
hundreds of articles relating to this subject.

Going back to the study in the New England Journal of
Medicine, Dr. Joseph Loscalzo of Boston University Medical
Center writes in his editorial, "The study provides
convincing evidence that high homocysteine levels put the
elderly at risk for Alzheimer's disease or other forms of
dementia."

It should be noted that homocysteine levels can
be lowered with proper doses of vitamins B6, B12, and folic
acid. Dr. Loscalzo further comments in the editorial, "It
is intriguing to contemplate the possibility that
consumption of these vitamins might prevent the development
of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias."

So now what should you do?

This study further solidifies for me the importance of
taking proper and adequate nutritional supplementation to
help maintain normal cognitive function. Although it is
yet to be defined exactly what the optimal doses of folic
acid, B6 and B12 are to lower homocysteine levels, it is
quite clear that the amounts used in the typical once-a-day
products are totally inadequate.

I would strongly recommend the use of Synergy multi-vitamin from
Nutraceutical Sciences Institute. Among its many nutrients
it contains an excellent amount of folic acid along with B6
and a specialized form of B12 known as methylcobalamin.
Most vitamin products on the market use the inexpensive
cyanocobalamin form of B12. Studies in the medical
literature have demonstrated that methylcobalamin has some
metabolic and therapeutic applications not shared by the
other forms of B12.

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